18th June, 2006 - The Amber Ale Selection
Olar (hello)
I've been asked by a few about the drinking situation here in Angola. Well
water is very expensive to buy here. In the house we have a water filter
with a UV light source to kill all of the nasty stuff, but we don't
trust it so we boil the water for twenty minutes before using it for
drinking.
So you see water takes a while to sort out, leaving me with only one
option...
BEER!!!!!! Or locally known as CERVEJA (pronounced sir-vay-sha).
Beer is the cheapest thing you can buy here to drink. Even compared to water and soft drink! So seeing as I'm a lazy
bastard, and a cheapskate, beer it is.
Here's my selection - I'll take you through them from right to left.
Heineken. I think every knows this one from home.
3 Horses. This one I only found in the shop the other day. Imported from
Holland, this lager is good. I've only had a couple but I will go back for
more.
The next two Sagres and Super Bock are both imported from Portugal. These
are a couple of the most drunk beers here in Angola. You can find these in
all of the resturants and bars, even the ladys on the side of the road
sell these.
Oh they don't have drive through bottle shops here, instead they have ladies
selling cold drinks on the side of the roads. You can see them when you
drive down the street. They stack two bottle crates on their ends and
on top of these they put an empty bottle of whatever they sell. Super,
they come straight out of the ice and they are even at a good price - about
100 Kwanzas each ($1.75 Australian).
Next two are local beers.
Cuca. The beer with the lowest alcohol content (at 4.5%) has the biggest
kick I've ever had. 3 of these little buggers and the next morning your
head will be banging like it's never banged before. On the label there
should be a warning, "Drink With Extreme Caution". Maybe there is, but I couldn't read it anyway. I can't say more except
"really nasty stuff" but it tastes good.
And finally my favorite. Eka. This is another local beer and at 5% it only
makes your head bang if you drink too many. This beer is sold at most
resturants and bars, except you have to be quick as it runs out early. It is also
the hardest beer to buy for home here in Luanda. There is only ONE supermarket that
sells it in all of Luanda. And as it turns out (luckily for me) it's just
around the corner from our house. And as you know Katie (the greenie) loves
to recycle and the Eka people are the first to recycle. When you buy the
beer, you only buy the beer (the fluidy stuff) for about 60 Kwanza. And then
you have to buy the bottle, for 33 Kwanza. When they're empty you take
them back to the shop and exchange the empties for full ones, or get your money
back. Super really, I'm doing my best, and drinking as many as I can so I
can help save the world!!
There are plenty of other beers here in Luanda, but apart from Cuca
and Eka they're all imported. Anyway I don't have any others in the fridge.
Well that's all for now, hope everyone's well
Brad
PS. If any of this doesn't make sence, please forgive me as my head is
banging a little this morning. Katie went out to the rig yesterday morning
and I went out to a party at lunchtime. Lunch turned into dinner, and you
can guess the rest, it was really dark when my driver took me home!
This is our driver Jose
And this is what happens when we go out and Jose has to wait
Now for some quiet time
Bye
